Posts tagged: Discovery

In his fascinating blog, Dave Arnold, Director of Culinary Technology at The International Culinary Center, detailed an amazing discovery in making flavourful soup stocks.

What’s the discovery?

“All pressure cookers aren’t created equal. The cooker you use affects flavor.”

Dave and his team of chefs and interns repeatedly tried cooking chicken stocks in two types of pressure cooker and conventional pot, did double blind testing with their eyes closed to factor out the hint of color as an indication to flavour.

To make the long story short, they concluded:

Stove-top pressure cookers with a jiggler type regulator (which makes a continuous chu-chu-chu-chu sound as it operates) make the worst stocks for leaking out flavour in the steam. They are worse than the conventional stock pot.

Pressure cookers with spring valve regulator, which allows you to turn down heating to prevent steam leaking, make the most flavourful stocks.

Simply put, escaping steam affects taste.

I’m not sure whether the professional chefs are interested in testing home kitchen oriented Instant Pot. But I’m rest assured that Instant Pot virtually leaks no steam during operation. And you don’t need to stand by to turn down the heat. For most of us, cooking is not a job or profession.